Under Sentence of Death; Or, a Criminal's Last Hours

Chapter 38: CHAPTER XXXVI.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

A volume gathers three shorter narratives that examine crime, punishment, and human bonds across varied settings. One adopts a first-person voice to render the claustrophobic psychology of a condemned prisoner confronting imminent execution, memory, and imagination. A second relates an adventurous episode set in a tented encampment, blending suspense with shifting loyalties and moral ambiguity. A third serves as a stark social vignette portraying deprivation and harsh judicial consequences, using a single life to prompt reflection on mercy and reform.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

It is a quarter past one.

This is how I feel. A violent headache and cold in the extremities, and a burning forehead. Each time that I rise or bend it seems to me as if some liquid which floats in my skull drives my brain against the top of my head.

I have nervous tremblings, and every now and then the pen falls from my hands as though I had sustained a galvanic shock.

My eyes water as if I were in a smoky room.

I have a pain in my elbows.

But in two hours and forty-five minutes I shall be cured.